Isekai GM 26. Confluence

「My Prince, the 『Banchou』-sama had arrived!!」

「Good work,
you may return」

「Yes sir!」

It’s the reinforcements from the Kingdom that we talked about before.
The 『Banchou』 and his men, a force of 200 thousand of fully equipped units had arrived.
But their food rations… umm…
Thanks to Haruka’s agriculture cheat, it’s wheat, rice, and curry fruit tree as far as eye can see.
We also purchased nearby lizard and cow-shaped monsters so the meat repertoire were increased as well.
Delicious meal raises the troop’s morale.
A horrible meal will of course drop it into the oblivion.

「Excuse my intrusion.
Hayato the 『Banchou』.
Has arrived!」

「It must have been a hard trip.
Hayato, let me introduce you.
This is Masaki, the Hero of the Blue Sea」

「I’m not really as heroic as they declare.
My name is Masaki Toudou.
Nice to work with you.
And these are both of my fiancees, Adelle and Yoko」

「
Nice to be working with you as well」
「I’ll look forward to be working with you」

「And we are the one recently saved by Masaki-san rom the Empire, I am the 『Sniper Princess』 Kisaragi Akiha.
Right now, my sister and I were placed as Masaki-san’s subordinate」

「Me too~ I am the 『Farmer』 Kisaragi Haruka desu~
I’m the one who put the food on the table nanodesu yo.
Nice to work with you,
Banchou-san」

「I hope we work well together. 」

The banchou is incredibly polite.
but… The wooden sword on his waist… what does he inquire?
Our total number after the Banchou joined us became 500 thousand.
About 200 thousand from the neighbouring countries near the fort, 200 thousand reinforcement, and 100 thousand from the adventurers and small country unions.

One of the people on the Empire’s ship we crushed when we fought the Leviathan was apparently one of the generals who attended the strategy meeting, using information we got from him, we requested the local adventurer guilds to send in 100 thousand soldiers and adventurers.
If you help people, they will return something back in kindness.

A blue marker appeared on the Map and approaching this room at an unusual speed.
The blue marker indicates an ally, in this case is Jirou.

「I have return from scouting.
As we had expected, the Empire is aware of their loss after the battle and is gathering a large number of soldiers.
It seemed that their west-side is still busy fighting monsters and can’t send any reinforcements」

「I heard that they sent a messenger to propose temporary ceasefire, so it didn’t go well?」

「It seemed so.
According to our information, even though the messenger was offering ceasefire, he was acting rudely.
He was looking down on us and saying such things as 『Let’s have a temporary ceasefire.
We’ll also release the captured prisoners.
In case you didn’t get it immediately, if you refuse, we are going for all of your women and children』. I think that’s all the Viscount told me」(TL: Either there’s another viscount reporting to Jirou or the messenger is a viscount.)

「Is he an idiot?」

「Probably.
Normally, that kind of attitude will get him punched in the gut.
Assuming the demons managed to push, we are considering to meet their leaders to discuss about joining forces」

It seemed that the Empire had an idiot among them.
I had a feeling that the war will happen in various places.
Their southern force is getting pushed back, but they still wont turn the entire army.
They don’t even care that the smaller kingdoms managed to gather their forces together. Thanks to that, their small union has gathered enough forces to join us as reinforcement.
Even more, monsters may even help us from their west-side.
If possible, I want to cut down their troops all at once.

「But, the empire’s number is about 700 thousand units.
They outnumbered us by a small margin.
Also, there’s a sighting of otherworlders such as『Gibushou』, 『Hunter』, and 『Dreadnought』 from their side.
They were not taken as hostage like Kisaragi-san, so it’s impossible to sway them to our side since they are helping the Empire by their own will.
We had a few encounters against them in the past」

I’d like to pull them over if possible, but if it’s from their own will then it can’t be helped.
Three otherworlders… I can understand the Gibushou and the hunter, but what is dreadnought?

「Umm… how strong is the dreadnought?」

「His powers? well…
He was summoned from a robot-type MMO, I believe」

「Eeh? Is that even possible!?」

I know people are summoned into this world from various MMO, but even the robotic MMO too!?
This is too much.
I’m running out of words.

「Nee, Masaki.
What is a robot?」

「Eh… umm how do I explain it… It’s similar to Steel Golem in a sense
but you can enter and control them from inside. Jirou, is the Dreadnought this kind of robot?」

「You’re right.
We’ve had to fight it several times.
The height is about 10 meters tall.
It can also shoot lasers and fire flying fists too」(TL: the RAW says beam but laser is more common in english games. I’m not entirely sure about the TL accuracy for the flying fist part)

「Like a steel castle, is it? That is sure one hell of a troublesome guy」

He may not the 100 meters tall kind of robot, but it doesn’t make him less intimidating.
Should I fight him to be safe?

「10 meters golem… If its similar to Steel Golem, I think I can fight it.
My greatest masterpiece, Gigant Golem, can reach about 8 meters tall.
I also embedded the bones from the Giant race inside, so it’s quite sturdy. It should hold quite well fighting it.」

「So Yoko had that kind of trump card?
But, will you fine alone?」

「I appreciate the concern, but it will be fine.
Using Gigant Golem requires immense amount of mana in the first place, so in that sense, I’m quite confident in my strength. Besides, as the hero’s bride, I don’t want to lose to Adelle in achievements.
And… To be honest, I’d like to try casting it as well」

「Wanting to have some achievements is good, but don’t push yourself」

「It will be fine.
I won’t make the same mistake twice」(TL: probably mentioning about her enslavement from before)

We’ll be worried if she got careless.
Losing a bride-to-be before the wedding will be like those dramas.
What are you talking about achievement in battle? I just want to protect everyone.

The conclusion is, Yoko will be fighting the 『Dreadnought』, as per her self-recommendation, 『Banchou』 will be fighting the 『Gibushou』, and Jirou will be fighting the 『Hunter』.

Adelle and I will be taking the aerial advantage and reduce the number of their common soldier using various magical attacks.

Akiha decided to use her super ultra long sniping range to hit the Empire’s commander from one of Yoko’s constructed Golems.
The soldiers will fall into a panic if their commander falls.

Haruka-san will be guarding the Prince… even though the Prince will guard her instead.
The prince were worried about Haruka-san being on the frontline but Akiha said

「Will she be alright? Oneechan might look like that, but she’s actually strong」

I don’t know what kind of dangerous thing the prince would pull from under his sleeve.
But it makes me feel sorry about their soldiers, as little as the feeling may be.

It takes a lot of time to arrange soldier placements and stations, but the same thing can be said to our troops.
The soldier’s merit is in their nimbleness, but forcing them to move fast will result in sloppy movements. A group of soldier without coordination doesn’t worth more than a bait.
Thanks to Jirou’s teachings, our soldier had learned Japanese Police’s fighting strategies. So even though our soldier lose in number, their individual strength is stronger than the Empire’s soldiers.

The adventurer’s strength were a little… sporadic to say the least, but the strength from their manoeuvrability and the mages on their parties still poses an incredible threat.

Considering the size of the troops, I need to produce tons of High-Potion to be shared among the party leaders and the soldier captains to increase our survivability.
I couldn’t make that numbers of High-Potions from my medicinal herbs alone, but again, Haruka-san provided me with a large amount of high-quality medicinal plants and herbs.
Since the material quality was good, it yields high quality potions.
This should raise our survivability to some extent.

After the strategy meeting ended, the 『Banchou』 visited me while I was making potions.

「Pardon me.
So you are one they referred as the Hero of Blue Sea, Masaki-san」

「Excuse me for talking while making potions.
To be honest, I’m not exactly a hero.
May I ask, are you always referred to as 『Banchou』 even in casual conversations?」

「
It may sound shameless but,
I was called 『Banchou』 before I even noticed it」

「Ah, so we are in similar situation then」

「Masaki-san seemed to be summoned from Britannia Online, but what is your real occupation? I can clearly see that being a pharmacist was due to circumstances alone」

「I… have to apologize beforehand,
I cannot give you any details in that matter.
Just think of my job as 『Hero』 if you have to」

Like when the King asked me about the play…
It doesn’t matter anymore.
No matter the result, now I have to disguise myself whenever I go to downtown.
but… About Adelle?
Should I buy her a new dress? Yoko might look good in Japanese clothes.

「Even though it’s just a play, I shall call you 『Hero』 if you wish」

「You didn’t come all over here just for a small chat, right?」

I made enough potions for now and it’s time to move to more serious topic.
I could go on and make another batch of potions, but I want some break.

「Is it to obvious?
I am here to ask one question. Masaki-san seemed to not be looking for the way back to our world and I am wondering why」

「When I ran away from the Empire, I know that was not a place for me anymore.
Also, hearing Jirou’s story made me gave up all of my reasons」

「Don’t you want to go home?」

It’s not that I “don’t” want to go home.
I still have some attachment to the previous world. And I really want to apologize to my seniors for the trouble I had caused.
And I still had my friends and parents.

「Even if I want… Can we even go back home?
Jirou must have found something if there’s a way home.
He had kept looking for it for 20 years while working for the Kingdom. 20 years and it results in nothing.
If he found it, I’m sure he would tell every otherworlder he met, even those from the Empire」

Up until now, there had been no discussion about how to return anyone.
Same thing can be said to the Empire.
I had suspected it since the time the Empire tried to enslave me, but at that time, I don’t know if the summoning is a one-way road… Or there’s a merit in killing us…

「Furthermore… right now, I have important people by my side.
So I don’t really seek the way back home.
But, if I can come back here after the trip, I’d like to go back home once」

「Is that so…
Right now, I still don’t know the way to go back home… but I will not give up just yet.
I can’t leave those on the other side」

Well, I guess his way of thinking should be normal.
Have I changed? The Kisaragi sisters will definitely help since they should be wanting to return, but what about the prince…?

「I understand… I will lend you my hand if you need any help.
But right now…」

「If we don’t destroy the empire, the whole continent will be swallowed by war」

「Exactly.
Hayato, those high-potions.
can you pass them to the commanding officers for me?」

「Thank you very much for your effort on both parts.
In the battlefield,
let’s do our best」

「Yeah…
let’s pray for low casualties in the upcoming battle.」

It’s war.
Perhaps this will be one of the great battle that will determine the fate of this continent.
So then I will do my best to contribute to everyone’s victory

I’m going to enter this bloody war.
But of course, no one actually wants to enter this almost never-ending war.